Rocks and Minerals, Kentucky Geological Survey. Shortened, on-line version of the publication "Rocks and Minerals of Kentucky" by Warren Anderson. Provides information on rocks and minerals of Kentucky, including methods of identifying minerals, crystal descriptions, hardness tests, streak tests, and other methods that can be used in the classroom to identify rocks and minerals in Kentucky. A list of museums that display Kentucky rocks and minerals is also provided.

Mineral Information Institute, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating youth about the science of minerals and other natural resources, and about their importance in our every day lives. This site provides a wealth of information for the classroom including lessons, activities, and guides for all grades. Some of the activities include information about the minerals in toothpaste, pencils, light bulbs, and other common objects. The Homework Help for Students section contains information about common minerals and their uses (and pictures), more than 45 photographs of minerals, and summaries of the rocks and minerals mined in each State. Poster packets are also for sale at a minimal price.

A Teacher's Guide for Hands-On Mineral Education Activities. Frank, D., Galloway, J., and Assmus, J., U.S. Geological Survey. This booklet describes the "life cycle" of a mineral deposit. The publication is geared to fifth through eighth grade teachers and provides content information and activities on minerals, mineral deposits, mining, and the uses of minerals. Activities (several from other sources) include orange-peel plate tectonics, peanut butter and jelly geology, cupcake core sampling, chocolate-chip cookie mining, extracting metal from rock, minerals in your body, rocks on your face, and making your own toothpaste. Available online for free in pdf format, or you can purchase a CD_ROM from USGS.

K12 Earth Science On-Line Classroom Activities, Society of Sedimentary Geologists. This site is the on-line version of the societys popular educational publication that has seven K12 lesson plans about rocks and minerals, including a lesson on crystal growing.

This Rock is Your Rock, This Rock is my Rock, U.S. Geological Survey from the SEPM on-line exercises. This site provides a version of a popular 4-6-grade lesson in which students describe rocks collected in there area in their own words and then other students try to determine which rocks were described. A good way for students to learn how classification systems are built.

Urban Rocks, Cleveland Museum of Natural History from the SEPM on-line exercises. This site provides information on how to design a rocks and minerals field trip in an urban area using buildings and man-made constructions. Several helpful references are listed.

Growing Crystals, Department of Geology, College of William and Mary, from the SEPM on-line exercises. This 8-12-grade exercise uses alum and salt to aid students in understanding about crystal formation, crystal shapes, and rates of crystal growth.

Mystery Minerals, Utah State University, from the SEPM on-line exercises. For this 1-4-grade activity (could also be used for introduction to mineral classification in grades 5-8) you need pieces of quartz, halite, and gypsum. The lesson is a standard example of mineral testing using hardness, streak, etc.

For many hundreds of high-quality images of minerals and gems, visit "theImage" site. Physical and chemical properties are shown on a page for each gem and mineral.

National Mining Association, is an industry association created by the merger of the National Coal Association and the American Mining Congress. Mining Statistics and Mining Education are two subheadings of the site. The educational component includes 40 common minerals and their uses, which is very useful, as well as fact sheets about coal, minerals, and what you should know about mining. The site also has low-priced educational materials for sale.

Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, is an international society of professionals in the minerals industry. The educational component of this site offers both free and sales material for educational use. The virtual atlas of opaque and ore minerals is free and contains more than 400 images of rocks and minerals as they appear under the microscope, with brief descriptions of each image. Also available are several videos, posters, workbooks, and teaching aids. Most are low priced.

Rockhounds Information Page. Provides a list of Rock Shops and Galleries (from which samples can be ordered), Images and Pictures, Books, articles, and publications, General earth science information, Collecting sites and trips, Groups, clubs, and societies, Software, and Homepages of other collectors. This site has a wide variety of information and images, some of which is free, some of which are sales oriented.

The National Energy Foundation. Non-profit developer of innovative mineral resource education materials. The Out of the Rock section provides on-line information about how minerals are used. Ths site also provides inexpensive posters and teachers materials concerning electricity production, energy, and mining. An educational music CD, "Rock Music" is also available at cost.